Thousands of people are hurt or killed at railroad crossings each year. Railroad crossings in urban and suburban areas usually have conventional warning systems such as lighting systems and/or gates which block entry to the railroad tracks when trains approach and pass through the crossings. However, many railroad crossings in rural areas do not have any warning systems. These crossings usually have signs to alert drivers of vehicles that they are about to cross over railroad tracks. During daylight hours, these signs and the tracks are usually readily visible. During night time hours, these signs and the tracks are much less visible, and sometimes based on conditions hardly visible at all.
Conventional freight railroad cars are not illuminated and are not equipped or constructed with reflective materials. During night time hours, many accidents occur simply because the drivers of vehicles cannot see the dark freight railroad cars and do not know that freight railroad cars are running through the crossing. These vehicles simply run into the moving railroad cars. This problem for vehicles (as well as for snowmobiles and ATV's) is so common that on Jan. 3, 2005, the United Sates Federal Railroad Administration issued final regulations mandating that reflective material be placed on all freight railroad cars within ten years or by 2015 at least according to a minimum schedule set forth in the regulations. The regulations are 49 CFR Part 224 entitled “Reflectorization of Rail Freight Rolling Stock; Final Rule.” These regulations further describe the extent of the existing problems. These regulations require railroads to place reflective material of minimum designated sizes on the freight railroad cars at minimum spaced apart designated positions.
This is an extraordinarily large and expensive undertaking for the railroads because there are over 1.6 million freight railroad cars and locomotives in North America. For purposes of this application, the term freight railroad cars includes locomotives. Each railroad car will have approximately 14 to 22 pieces of reflective material mounted on that railroad car. Thus, between 22 million and 35 million pieces of reflective material will need to be mounted on the freight railroad cars. Equipping the large number of freight railroad cars in accordance with these regulations has been and continues to be an extremely slow process, in part because the railroads are equipping their freight cars by directly placing adhesive backed reflective tape on portions of the freight railroad cars such as the frames and side walls of the freight railroad cars. There are several problems with attaching such reflective tape directly to the freight railroad cars. One problem is that the freight railroad cars must be taken out of service for a relatively significant amount of time during the attachment process. Another problem is that the freight railroad cars are usually extremely dirty and must be cleaned before the adhesive backed reflective tape is directly placed on the freight railroad cars for proper adherence. Another problem is the freight railroad cars tend to be rusty and the adhesive backed tape does not adhere to rust very well. This cleaning may include washing, sanding, blasting, grinding, painting and drying processes. The cleaning can take several hours for each freight railroad car. This cleaning is thus extremely time consuming, inefficient and expensive. This overall process of directly attaching adhesive backed reflective tape to each freight railroad car can take between 2 to 5 hours. This is a substantial man-hour cost. These problems dramatically slow the entire process of equipping the 1.6 million freight railroad cars according to the regulations.
To avoid these problems and significant costs, some railroads may be directly applying reflective tape to the dirty freight railroad cars to save time and cost. The problem with this is that the adhesive backed reflective tape is much more likely to not stick to, peel off or otherwise come off such dirty or rusty surfaces, and thus result in a freight railroad car without the necessary reflective material according to the regulations. After the reflective material comes off, it is less likely to be put back on in a short time period.
A further problem is that the adhesive backed reflective tape is preferably applied when the temperature is above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. If the temperature is significantly below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and particularly if the surface of the freight railroad car is below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, then the adhesive backed reflective tape may not readily stick to the surface of the freight railroad car. Similarly, a further problem is that it is difficult to apply the reflective tape in bad weather such as rain or snow. This also dramatically increases the time and cost of equipping freight railroad cars according to the regulations.
Another problem with directly applying reflective tape to the freight railroad cars is that many surfaces of the freight railroad cars are not flat because they have been dented or otherwise damaged. This can further slow down the installation process and can cause the reflective tape to peel or otherwise come off more readily. A further problem is that the adhesive backed reflective tape directly applied to the railroad is not protected and is subject to external forces which can cause damage to the reflective tape.
Accordingly, there is a need for a much easier, much faster and less expensive method and apparatus for equipping freight railroad cars with reflective material according to the regulations.
Additionally, there is a need for a method and apparatus that will encourage railroads to equip their freight railroad cars ahead of the schedule required by the regulations.